UMD Breaks Ground on A. James Clark Hall

On Friday, November 21, The University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the new A. James Clark Hall, in College Park. The new building will be a home for the bioengineering department and will offer state-of-the-art laboratories. According to the university, it will also help ”accelerate advancements in human health.”

A. James Clark Hall

The University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering hosted a groundbreaking ceremony on Nov. 21 for the new A. James Clark Hall in College Park. The new building will be home to the bioengineering department and will offer state-of-the-art laboratories. According to the university, it will also help “accelerate advancements in human health.”

The A. James Clark Hall will be constructed on the site of the Paint Branch Parking Lot, adjacent to the Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building. It will cover 184,000 square feet of space and will include flex classrooms, two stories of laboratories with wet and dry spaces and even a vivarium, office space and an atrium.

The new building will house the Fischell Department of Bioengineering and the Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices and will also serve as a central hub for new partnerships for organizations throughout the Maryland-Washington, D.C., region. Some of the nation’s top bioscience research forces are located within an hour’s drive, among them the National Institutes of Health, the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Bethesda-based Clark Construction Group has been selected to build the new hall. The facility was designed by a team of architects at Ballinger. It is scheduled to open in 2017.

The university did not reveal the cost of the project. It did, however, say that it would not have been possible without the generosity of A. James Clark and Dr. Robert E. Fischell. The two benefactors donated $15 million and $6 million, respectively, to support the design and construction of the hall.

“Our researchers are hard at work on biomedical projects that are staggering in their potential impact: a cure for multiple sclerosis, a cancer vaccine, a magnetic pain reduction system and many others,” University of Maryland President Wallace Loh said in a statement for the press. “When complete, this new building will give them the space and facilities to finish the job.”

“This new, state-of-the-art facility for bioengineering research and education will attract exceptional faculty and students to Maryland, support leading-edge research and education, and benefit the state of Maryland’s innovation ecosystem through the creation of new companies and new jobs,” University System of Maryland Chancellor William Kirwan added.